5 themes of geography

5 themes of geography

Location, Place, Human enviorment interaction, movement, regions

Location

Where are we? (Absolute Location, Relative location)

Absolute location

A latitude and longitude (global location) or a street address (local location). Paris France is 48 degress North latitude and 2 degreses East longitude.

relative location

Described by landmarks, time, direction or distance. From one place to another

Place

what is it like there? What kind of place is it? (human and physical characterisitcs)

Human characteristics

Main languages, customs and beliefs. How many people live, work and visit a place.

Physical charactisitics

Landforms (mountains, rivers, etc.), climate, vegetation, wildlife, soil, etc.

Human enviorment interaction

How do humans and the enviorment affect each other? (depend, modify, adapt)

We depend on it

people depend on the mississippi river for trnsportation

We modify it

people modify our enviorment by heating and cooling buildings for comfort

we adapt to it

we adapt to winter by wearing jackets

Movement

How are people, goods, ideas moved form place to place (human movement, information movement, idea movement)

Information movement

Phones, computer (email, Mail)

idea movement

How do fads move from place to place (TV, radios, Magazines)

Human movement

Trucks, trains, planes, illnesses, viruses

Regions

How are regions similar to and different from other places (Formal, functional, vernacular)

Formal Regions

Rgions defined by governmental al or administrative boundries (states, countries, cities)

Functional regions

Regions defined by a function (newspaper service area, cell phone coverage area)

Vernacular

regions defined by peoples perception (middle east, the south, etc)

Absolute distance

Exact, precise

Miles/kilometers/directional words

Relative distance

spatial interaction: connections, contacts, movement, and flow of things between places.

Political map

Names and boundries of countries and states

Physical map

physical features of the area on the map

Climate map

info about climate in the area

road map

major highays

-roads plus airports, cities and points of interests like parks, campgrounds, and monuments

Thematic map

Focuses on a particular theme or special topic

Choropeth map

Areas are shaded/patterned to correspond w/ measurement of a statistic

Dot map

show spatial pattern in an area, usually distribution or density throu a visual scatter

Cartogram

combines statistical info w/ geographical location: Takes a measurable variable (total population, age of inhabitants, electoral votes, GDP, etc) and manipulates size of a place to math the data

Map distortion

All maps are distoted, Putting a round globe on flat map distrts the shape and size of the landorms/countries.

Projection

The system used to transfer locations from eaths surface